


this isn't real (i don't love you)

by wavverlyearp



Category: Jane the Virgin (TV)
Genre: AU, F/F, Fake/Pretend Relationship
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-03-18
Updated: 2018-04-02
Packaged: 2019-04-04 06:20:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,674
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14014047
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wavverlyearp/pseuds/wavverlyearp
Summary: Petra laughed at the thought of ever liking Jane Ramos, never mind falling in love with heror the one where actresses Petra and J.R are set up to 'date' for publicity on their tv show.





	1. Chapter 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so my obsession with Petramos is definitely taking over my life and with the help of amy (@bridgetsrose) here is my first fic for them!
> 
> (also any typos are the sleep deprivations fault not mine) x

_it's a fine line between love and hate_

 

* * *

 

Petra smiled for the camera’s as they flashed all around her, blinding her. She could do this, put on her best fake smile, play the part, let them see what they want to see. That’s what she was good at, she always had been.

 

“Miss Andel, this way.” One of her bodyguards spoke firmly, pushing back the camera’s flashes and clearing a path to the studio. Petra followed, a smile still stitched on her face until the flashing stopped. _Miss Andel,_ Petra hadn’t heard that name in a long time, yet it felt strangely comfortable. Mrs Solano had never felt right.

 

“Mrs Lockwood wants to see you.” A man Petra had never bothered to learn the name of said as she approached him. He looked nervous, uncomfortable maybe. But Petra didn’t have time to wonder why, letting out a small sigh she made her way to Janet’s office, praying that whatever she was wanted for wouldn’t last long.

 

“Look Janet, whatever it is-“ Petra started as she opened the door to the office, her words swiftly failing her as she saw her agent sat down with Janet.

 

“Petra, do you want to take a seat?” Janet asked softly. Petra didn’t move for a moment, suddenly questioning every questionable decision she had made in the last couple of years that could lead to her being fired.

 

Slowly, Petra moved and took a seat, both Janet and her agent staring at her from the other side of the desk. She felt intimated, but like most feelings, Petra pushed it aside.

 

“Before you react badly to what we are about to say, you need to hear us out.” Rose said, her voice strong, as always. It was one of the reasons Petra loved her agent, she was never weak, her work came first and everything else came after. But even Rose looked a little nervous, which made Petra’s stomach twist and turn, her fists clenching in her lap. As much as Petra put on this harsh exterior, she was only human, and just like anyone, her nerves were getting the better of her in this moment, not that she would ever let anyone else know that.

 

“Our ratings are dropping, quite rapidly.” Janet said, sitting up in her chair as she did so. “The viewers are losing interest in the show after Rafael quit.” Petra flinched slightly at his name. After their divorce, he had quit the show and gone and got the lead role on another show. Petra couldn’t blame him, working together was not easy anymore, it was better for the both of them this way. But a lot of the viewers were there for him, and now that he wasn’t in the show, they weren’t watching.  
  
“We need a way to get some more viewers.” Janet said, clearing her throat before continuing. “So, Rose suggested…”

 

“I suggested that you _date_ Ramos.” Rose said calmly, Petra’s mouth opened her mouth to reply, but no words came to her, her mouth just left hanging slighty open.

 

After a moment Petra managed to sutter out, “You what?”

 

“I suggested that you-“

 

“I heard you the first time,” Petra said sternly, cutting Rose off, “I just don’t understand why that would help get viewers? And what the hell do you mean by _date_?” Petra’s voice started harsh yet collected but ended up being high-pitched and squeaky as she tried to process what was happening right now.  
  
“A lot of fans ship her character with yours, so if you two fake date, so to speak, we get the publicity, the fans kind of get what they want, and we get more viewers.” Janet explained.

 

“You want me to fake date my co-star so we can get more views?” Petra said slowly, processing what she was being asked to do. She knew that in Hollywood this was supposedly common practise, setting up actresses or actors for publicity, but never had Petra imagined she’d be a part of this.

 

“Yes.” Janet said calmly, she looked nervous, as if the entire fate of her show was resting in Petra’s hands, and to an extent it did.

 

“How do you even know this is going to work.”

 

“Trust me, it will.” Rose said, a huge smile splayed out on her face. Petra wished right now she had a time when she had trusted Rose and things had gone wrong, but there wasn’t one. Rose knew what she was doing, and Petra knew that.

 

After a few uncomfortable moments of silence, Petra spoke up,“You do realise I’m not gay, right?”.

 

“Yes Petra.” Rose replied, a slight hint of sarcasm laced in her words, but Petra chose to ignore it. “We’re not asking you to have sex with her, just to give her a quick kiss every so often in front of a camera and then break up with her in a few months.”

 

Petra felt her cheeks redden slightly as Rose spoke. This was ridiculous.

 

“Why don’t our characters get together?” Petra asked, her words met with tightened lips and silence. “They are aren’t they?”

 

“Yes, but we want to make sure people watch.” Janet said.

 

“The more drama the better.” Rose added.

 

Petra wondered how long they had been planning this, what other ideas had been thrown about and if any of them were better than _this._

 

“What happens if I say no?” Petra asked, raising her eyebrows and sitting up in her seat, desperately trying to get the upper hand.

 

“The show gets cancelled and you’re out of a job.” Rose stated bluntly.

 

“God, you are so dramatic.” Petra said through a sigh, sinking back into herself.

 

“It’s only for a couple of months Petra, it’s not that big of a deal, it’s just acting.”

 

Petra sunk back further into her chair. _It’s not that big of a deal._ Petra almost laughed to herself. She had just gotten divorced with the media watching her every move, her job was on the line and now she was being told if she didn’t fake date Ramos the show would be cancelled.

 

“Fine, I’ll do it.”

 

“Okay, good.” Janet smiled as though Petra had just told her she had won the lottery, and Rose looked smug, she always did when her plans worked.

 

“I’ll set up a date.” Rose said, picking up her phone and dialling who Petra assumed was Jane’s agent. “Hey, Lucy? She said yes.”

 

After Rose had taken her phone call with Jane’s agent, she stood up and swiftly left Janet’s office, Petra leaving with her.

 

“Rose this is insane!” Petra hissed as they left the office. “I don’t even know her first name for Christ’s sake.”

 

“How do you not know her name? You’ve been working with her for nearly three months Petra.”

 

“I know her character’s name.” Petra said under her breath as she followed Rose.

 

“It’s Jane.” Rose said as she typed out another email on her phone, not looking up as she walked through the set, people jumping out of her way.

 

“Jane?” Petra repeated, having to half jog to keep up with Rose. “You have got to be kidding me.” In the few months that Petra and Rafael had been apart, he had started dating Jane Villanueva, and the more Petra thought about it the more she thought there was already something between those two before the divorce.

 

“Oh yeah, forgot about that.” Rose chuckled to herself at the irony, “Anyway, they want you in hair and makeup, I’ll message you with updates about your date.” Rose said before she turned away. _Your date,_ the words circled Petra’s head. Date’s in general were awkward, dates with paparazzi following your every move were extremely awkward. Petra didn’t even want to imagine what a ‘fake date’ was going to be like.

 

Petra let her thoughts consume her as she walked to hair and makeup, playing every possible outcome of this in her head. At least she knew Jane, she had worked with her a few times in the show, but that was it. Nothing but a few words exchanged in between takes and the odd smile from a distance. Petra had never even taken the time to learn her first name, and now she was having to convince the world that she liked this woman.

 

When Petra opened the door to hair and makeup trailer, she felt her shoulders drop, her body relaxing. It felt comforting, like home. She couldn’t lose this. So, if she had to put on a front and date this _Jane_ , Petra grimaced at the name, then she would.

 

As Petra sat down, her phone vibrated in her pocket.

 

_Rose: Meet you at the end of the day, discuss the plans with Jane and her agent._

Petra sighed, the name Jane getting to her more than it should, shutting her phone and smiling at her own reflection. She could do this, like Rose said, _it’s only acting_.

 

* * *

 

“How long are we saying this should last?” Lucy, Jane’s agent asked, Rose replying. Petra had been here nearly an hour, watching the two agents swap ideas on how to get the most publicity and to make this relationship believable as both Jane and Petra watched, exchanging awkward glances.

 

Eventually, Rose nodded in agreement with whatever plan her and Lucy had come up with, turning to Petra and giving her trademark smile, slightly sinful but extremely convincing.

 

“So, anything you two want to discuss.” Lucy asked, glancing between Petra and Jane.

 

“I can’t call her Jane.” Petra said without thinking, Rose giving her a death glare.

 

“Her ex is now dating Jane Villanueva.” Rose said, giving context to Petra’s seemingly insensitive statement.

 

“So, what are you going to call me if you can’t say my name?” Jane said, speaking up for the first time since this meeting begun. Petra watched as Jane leaned back, her eyebrows raised, almost as if she was toying with Petra, daring her to do something, but Petra wasn’t sure what.

 

“J.R.” Petra said after a second, earning a laugh from J.R.

 

“Only if I get to call you Pete.” J.R said with a wink, Petra’s face turning a deep shade of red. Petra could see Rose trying to hold back a laugh as the blonde did her best to keep a straight face.

 

“Definitely not.” Petra said back, her voice cold, ignoring how the other woman’s smile was infectious and how the urge to smile back was growing with every second that passed.

 

“Seems fair to me.” J.R retorted, doing her best to pull Petra’s strings, and succeeding.

 

“Right, is that everything?” Rose asked, her words met with silence. “I’ll take that as a yes then.” Rose continued, looking at Petra who was staring at J.R, _fuck you_ written all over her face, Jane’s face screaming _I dare you._

Rose coughed, nudging Petra and breaking her out of whatever trance she seemed to be in.

 

“What was that all about?” Rose asked once out of the trailer, turning to face Petra who shrugged her shoulders.

 

“What was what about?”

 

“You looked like you were about to kill her.”

 

“She called me Pete.” Petra mumbled, earning an eye roll from Rose.

 

“Get a grip, and save the eye sex for the camera.” Rose said, smiling to herself as she walked away.

 

“What? That wasn’t, no!” Petra yelled after Rose.

 

If J.R managed to get under Petra’s skin in a two-minute conversation, how the hell was Petra going to make it through a date with her?

 

“See you tomorrow, Pete.” Petra spun around on her heels to see J.R walking away from her with a wicked smile on her face, a sway in her hips as she walked, as if she knew she was in control. _Not for long,_ Petra thought to herself as she walked back to her trailer. Petra was always in control, of herself and of those around her. Control kept her sane, and lately everything was breaking around her, so if she was going to have to be with this _Jane_ to stop another part of her life shattering before her _,_ then she was going to do it her way. 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hope you enjoyed the first chapter,, hopefully I will update around once a week (depending on my exams)
> 
> x


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> can't believe I actually updated within a month (for me this is basically a miracle)
> 
> so please enjoy the second chapter of what should be renamed to 'Petra confuses lust (soon to be love) and hate'

 

_I hate you to the moon and back_

 

* * *

 

 

Petra sighed, checking her watch and ignoring the way her hands shook slightly. She shouldn’t be nervous, she wasn’t nervous, nervous wasn’t a feeling that Petra ever had to deal with. She was always in control, and even though she was _technically_ in control of this and what the paparazzi saw, she wasn’t in control of the woman walking towards her, with what Petra had come to assume was her trademark smug smile stitched on her face. 

 

“Pete.” J.R greeted, leaning in and planting a kiss on Petra’s cheek.

 

“Don’t _Pete_ me.” Petra hissed back as J.R pulled away, clenching her fists as she tried to keep calm, doing her best to ignore the slight blush appearing on her cheeks. Petra could see that J.R was going to enjoy making this insufferable for Petra, and this was only the beginning.

 

“Has someone tipped them?” J.R asked, scanning the restaurant entrance for camera’s, Petra noting the other woman’s impeccable jawline as she turned her head. J.R turned back to look at Petra, raising her eyebrows in questioning as Petra realised she hadn’t answered J.R’s question.

 

“Yes, they should be on their way.” Petra’s voice cracking half way through her sentence, covering it best she could with a cough.

 

“Good.” J.R responded, taking Petra’s hand within her own before she began walking towards the entrance of the restaurant. It took Petra’s feet a few seconds to kick into action, her fingers laced with J.R’s distracting her somewhat, not that Petra knew why. She held hands with people before, men and women, but no one had ever made her lose her footing, or forget how to breathe for a second. _Maybe_ it was because Petra was used to dragging the other person behind her, much like J.R was doing right now to her, or _maybe_ it was the fact that Petra hadn’t seen it coming, or _maybe_ it was because she hadn’t held anyone’s hand since Rafael, pushing people as far away as she could get them, personal space becoming a line that if you crossed you’d never forget it.

 

J.R spoke to the waiter as Petra stood quietly by her side, their fingers still intertwined. She wasn’t used to this, she wasn’t used to not being the one who spoke up, who lead people. J.R was confident, assertive, she was more like Petra than the blonde would ever admit.

 

When they got to their table, J.R pulled a chair back and gestured for Petra to sit. Petra gave the other woman a small smile as she sat down, not remembering the last time anyone had pulled a chair out for her, and whilst it was a small gesture, the small gestures meant a lot. In a world where money wasn’t a problem and the bigger the gesture the better, many forgot about the little things, but not the woman stood across from Petra, apparently.

 

_Maybe this won’t be so bad after all._ Petra thought to herself as J.R sat down.

 

“So, Pete, who blackmailed you into this?”

 

Petra sighed, taking back her thoughts from only seconds ago.

 

“No one is blackmailing me to be anywhere, J.R, I’m here to that the show gets views and I’m not out of a job.” Petra said through her teeth, taking a deep breath at the end of her sentence. Whilst it didn’t take much to annoy Petra, it took a lot to make her lose control of herself, to shout, to scream, yet J.R had managed it in mere seconds. Petra wasn’t sure whether to hate the woman’s guts, or be somewhat impressed.

 

The waiter came over before J.R could insert another witty remark, and Petra was glad, it gave her time to catch her breath and calm herself, even though she knew it wouldn’t take much for the brunette to rile her up once more.

 

Before either of them had the chance to speak as the waiter walked away, Petra felt J.R’s fingertips run up her thigh.

 

“What are you doing?’ Petra asked, her voice coming out a lot less firm than it was supposed to, but J.R didn’t seem to notice, and if she did, she did a good job of hiding it.

 

“Just saw three guys with camera’s practically sprinting down the street, I’m guessing they are here for us.” J.R said, her fingers tracing small meaningless patterns on Petra’s thigh, the blonde doing everything in her power not to react to the touch.

 

“Right, of course.” Petra said, ignoring the heat coming from her thigh, the simple touch sending sparks through her, as if this was an actual first date.

 

“Loosen up Pete.” J.R said, Petra suddenly realising how tense her body was and she relaxed slightly, letting her shoulder drop down as she took a deep breath.

 

“Stop calling me _Pete_.” Petra practically spat the word Pete, only making the grin on J.R’s face grow. Petra could clearly see that J.R was getting a kick out of this, out of annoying the shit out of Petra. Winding her up like a jack-in-a-box and waiting for Petra to snap. But Petra was better than that, she was not going to let the woman smiling smugly at her win. So Petra smiled for the camera, took J.R’s hand within her own and played the part she needed to.

 

* * *

 

“How long do I have to keep this up for?” Petra hissed down the phone, even in the privacy of her own trailer she didn’t feel safe saying it aloud. That her and J.R were not dating, that it was all a scam.

 

“Petra, it’s been two days.” Rose’s voice replied flatly, making Petra sigh deeply into the phone.

 

“She’s insufferable, I’m going to end up killing her.” Petra said, running her hands through her hair. Just the thought of J.R was making her whole body react, her arms tensing, her stomach dropping, she hated _Jane Ramos_ with every fibre of her body.

 

“If you kill anyone I am not helping you get out of it.” Rose said and she could hear the smile on the redhead’s face through the phone.

 

Petra cut off the call, slamming her phone onto the side, surprised that the screen didn’t crack. She was late for set, she had been late when she called Rose, but she didn’t care. Petra usually hated being late, priding herself on her punctuality, but knowing that the scene was with _her,_ made Petra lose everything she would usually pride herself upon.

 

It took another ten minutes before a crew member came and got her, Petra putting on her best fake voice and smile, saying she hadn’t noticed the time before leaving her trailer and praying that she had looked at the wrong scene, that J.R wouldn’t be waiting for her when she arrived.

 

But of course, she was.

 

J.R was sat on the sets couch, the camera’s all on her, watching every movement she made. She was wearing a white suit, and it hurt Petra to admit it looked good on her, _really good._ Petra stood and watched J.R talk to one of the crew members, laughing and smiling, flashing her prefect teeth.

 

“Petra, we’re ready.” The director yelled, Petra needing a second to register that she was being spoken to. As she walked over to the set, the voices around her softened until there was silence, the only sound in the room was Petra’s heels clicking against the wooden floor. Petra managed to sit down on the couch, as far from J.R as humanly possible, without making eye-contact with the other woman, ignoring the burning stare J.R had been giving her.

 

“Petra, just move a bit closer to Jane for me.” The director yelled, gesturing with his hand for Petra to shuffle, and reluctantly she did. She expected J.R to laugh, or make a remark, but she was greeted with silence.

 

“Great, is everyone ready?” The director shouted, earning nods and “yes” from the crew surrounding the two actresses.

 

Once the scene started Petra took a deep breath, forcing herself to look at J.R. Maybe Petra was overthinking things, she was an actress, putting on a fake smile and pretending to be someone else was her job. So that’s what she did, put on a smile which didn’t quite reach her eyes and watched as J.R said her lines.

 

Petra didn’t notice when J.R had stopped speaking, she had lost herself in every word J.R had said, words from a script but she made them her own, and Petra completely lost herself in them.

 

“Petra, it’s your line.”   
  
Petra blinked twice, watching J.R’s face turn from her characters to her own, smug, her eyebrows rising as she tugged her bottom lip on her teeth, and felt her whole body react. She hated J.R, more than she had ever hated anyone or anything, and considering Petra worked in the media, that said a lot.

 

“Sorry.” Petra said, clearing her throat. “Can I have a minute?” Before anyone had time to answer Petra got up and walked away, choosing to ignore the directors sigh. If she was going to have to put up with J.R not only at work but in her personal life as well, she was going to need to get something out of this, whether it be money or more screen time, Petra was not doing this for nothing, her time and effort was worth a hell of a lot more than that.

 

And right now Petra would rather spend her time and effort on anyone but Jane Ramos.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading and if you could leave any comments (nice or critical, or just say hey) I would really approaching as I can't put into words how motivating they are. 
> 
> x


End file.
